In 2026, it will be 900 years since the first mention of the Rotunda of St. George – a shrine that is intrinsically linked to the mountain of all Bohemians, Říp.

Říp, a mythical mountain located in an otherwise peaceful plain between two rivers, the basalt vanguard of the Tertiary volcanic remains of the Bohemian Central Highlands, has attracted the human imagination since ancient times. Over the centuries, the mountain has defended its significance mainly in terms of power, religious and political interpretations.

The mountain itself, however, also offers considerable potential in the field of contemporary artistic research. The plethora of cultural, historical and social contexts directly prompts the artistic community to thoroughly review and evaluate it. We could treat the mountain as an aesthetic visual crutch of modern Czech landscape painting. Examples are not few. However, the aim of the exhibition project is to capture the mountain in a different context, to reveal its myth-shrouded face and to expose hidden layers through artistic criticism.

What else can Mount Říp provide today? Targeted lookout or monument tourism, dubious celebrations of nationalistic pride, or esoteric séances? What potential does Říp have in contemporary visual art? Is it nowadays sufficient only with the flamboyant myths from ancient chronicles and realistic landscapes from the hands of the classics? Can we expose this materialized myth to the basalt bedrock, or is this deglorification still (and perhaps at this very time) taboo?

We are looking for an answer to this question with teachers and the next generation of artists from the ranks of students of the Faculty of Art and Design of Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem, who will create works tailored for the gallery space on this occasion. Together with the art studios Photography, Applied Photography, Time-based Media, Interactive Media, Digital Media and Object-Space-Action, we are looking across contexts and media.